November 21, 2023 • 49 mins
George Bailey’s do still exist today, as we witness with Seneca Falls’ community banker Menzo Case, following his efforts to create much-needed affordable housing via his own Bailey Park. Ordinary Americans “do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community,” George famously chastises Henry F. Potter, suggesting they ought to be able to do so “in a couple of decent rooms and a bath.” How did working people come to be priced out of owning their own homes in modern small towns? The Potters are revealed, and they are us: “NIMBYs.” SaveGeorgeBailey.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
It's founder of It's a Wonderful Tasting and Drinkling a Girl.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Another day, in Seneca Falls, New York, two best friends,
Kelly and Alicia, steal a few smokes inside a car
parked outside a brewery on Fall Street where they're hosting
another of their tasting events. Inside the place is packed
with mostly tourists sampling beers.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm the founder of Drinking a Girl. We actually create
events around craft beer and women in empowerment, and we
came and worked with Fall Street Brewing and we're offering
that it's a wonderful tasting. So the It's Wonderful Tasting
consists of five wineries and five breweries that are all
women down or vest rights investment.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I know what I'm going to do tomorrow and the
next day, and next year and a year after that.
I'm shaking the dust of this crummy little town off
my feet, and I'm going to see the world Italy, Greece,
the Parthenon, the Coliseum. Then I'm coming back here and
go to college and see what they know.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
I left for opportunity.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
I left originally to do childcare and kind of fell
into the whole world of accounting and had my son
and came back. That's why I came.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
That's my story and nutshell, are you.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Listen to me? I don't want any plastics, I don't
want any ground floors, and I don't want to get
married evert anyone. You understand that I want to do
what I.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
Want to do to get George Bailey well for the
for the family aspect. If I had no roots in New
York City, I just went there for my own And
then when I had my son in my head, we
were going to stay out there forever and he's gonna
have all the opportunity.
Speaker 6 (01:36):
And I saw him and I was.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Like, I gotta get out here.
Speaker 7 (01:37):
Too many people were my bad leg.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
That's what happened.
Speaker 8 (01:40):
In Sure, Yeah, in Sure?
Speaker 9 (01:44):
What is JU want?
Speaker 10 (01:44):
Right?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
You want the moon? If you do, just say the word,
I'll throw a lash ale around it, pull her down
for you, perflo gil.
Speaker 11 (01:53):
Won't you come out tonight? Won't you come out tonight?
Won't you come out tonight?
Speaker 8 (01:57):
Perfello girl?
Speaker 11 (01:58):
Won't you come out?
Speaker 9 (02:00):
No? Hi?
Speaker 12 (02:16):
All right?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Why in the world do you ever marry a guy
like me?
Speaker 11 (02:24):
What do you keep from being an old maid?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I'm married Sam Wayne right and anybody else in town.
Speaker 12 (02:31):
I didn't want to marry anybody else in town.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
I want my baby to look like you.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I didn't even have a honeybo you.
Speaker 9 (02:39):
I promised you.
Speaker 13 (02:41):
You're what my baby, You're You're nor you you on
the nest George Bailey, Lasso Stork.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Oh why I loved. I left to go to college.
So I went to fast school at the Fashioned Suit
Technology UH when my daughter was one, when I was
accepted into it, so I went out there her and
I lived there for most of her life, most of
my adult life and uh sadly lost a brother and
came for a summer. My daughter convinced me stay. She's
(03:13):
about eleven at the time and wanted to be close
to the family as well. It is about small towns.
Small towns, you know, regardless of there's a lot of
things that you're like, Ah, I don't want to be
in this town. The does the dirt off my shoes
travel the world. It's real and then you know when
it comes back. Never when it comes down though, when family,
(03:35):
family matters, and small towns you do have that support
and that love and that that community you can't get
anywhere else. It's yeah, take out every time?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Why do we have.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
To live here in the first place and stay around
this measly from the old town?
Speaker 14 (03:50):
What's wrong?
Speaker 15 (03:51):
Wrong everything?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
You call this a happy family? Why do we have
to have all these kids?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
She got me in a way of the sadness. But
we weren't coming back, yeh, you know, it wasn't happening.
And then you know, but you lose family and you're like, wait,
how important is it to be in those towns where
your family.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
Are like you're missing all that time away from them?
Speaker 11 (04:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
And yeah, So Buffalo.
Speaker 7 (04:15):
Girls, can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 8 (04:17):
Can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 16 (04:18):
Can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 17 (04:20):
Buffalo girls, can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 9 (04:25):
By the Oh, Joe, I'm outside, Joe sang, yeah, Christmas.
Speaker 7 (04:42):
If you make me cry, Joe.
Speaker 18 (04:59):
I don't think the There is a scene in the
first two thirds of that movie that you couldn't plaques
to a certain specific area of Nutley.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
You're in Nutley, New Jersey, once a small town just
outside New York City, now a kind of suburb. This
is where Francis Goodrich, the Wonderful Life screenwriter, grew up,
and three of the town historians are having a conversation.
Speaker 18 (05:23):
You know, we have a sledding hill that's famous.
Speaker 15 (05:25):
We have sixt door here.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Brady, my kid brudder, Harry Braley. I'm not scar.
Speaker 18 (05:43):
That famous skating area called the mud Hole, which is
very personal where kids would have gone to and have
memories of doing that kind of thing, of going out
on the ice and.
Speaker 19 (05:54):
Maybe even breaking through.
Speaker 18 (05:55):
Who knows. For good Rich, I could easily see where
you could take any scene from that first two Thursds
of the movie and located to somewhere in Nutley.
Speaker 9 (06:04):
Did it you rented a new house?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Rent you?
Speaker 11 (06:09):
Hear what he says, the billy I owned my house.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
He was every Martine. I owned my own the house.
Speaker 18 (06:17):
No more we live like a page in this apotus field.
Speaker 20 (06:20):
Prior to nineteen forty one, we had five building and
loans in Nutley. They started actually back in the late
eighteen hundreds where they were lending money out to people
to build businesses, to build houses. And then with the
banking changes in nineteen forty one, those five building and
loans became one Nutley Savings alone, and that was the
one of the dominant banks here in town that helped
(06:42):
the fund all these people that were coming back into town.
So that was like a big part of managing the
money that was here in town, that wealthy people had
and redistributing it so to speak to the people that
were hard working people, you know, blue collar jobs here
in town, so that those people could rise up through
society and be able to get it in maybe a
second car, get their own home, move out of an
(07:05):
apartment building, have a yard. So John Dolan, who was
one of the leaders that the Savans a Loan, built
it up dramatically, and he was probably one of the
more beloved people here in town.
Speaker 10 (07:16):
When I moved here in nineteen fifty three, the Dolan brothers,
we're running the Savings and Loan in town. In fact,
they held the mortgage on our house. You knew them.
Speaker 19 (07:30):
He's the closest, He's the closest to George Bailey out
So he was really one of those individuals that took
his organization, made a great profit for the organization, and
the board of directors were happy.
Speaker 20 (07:41):
But at the same point, they built the town, solid,
solid foundation for the town.
Speaker 18 (07:46):
The bank president was the first desk when you went
into the bank, and the bank president knew what you
did and if you needed something, you talk to him
and he knew who you were and they knew your family.
And that doesn't happen anymore.
Speaker 12 (07:57):
Now.
Speaker 18 (07:57):
It's a form you fill out and then some computer
tells you whether you hit the mark as to whether
that loan comes.
Speaker 9 (08:02):
To you or not.
Speaker 10 (08:03):
Well, John Dolan used to go personally to practically every
house that he was going to give a mortgage to.
Speaker 18 (08:10):
I don't think there's an equivalent at all. I don't
believe that there is any. I think certain things have
their life and their time period where they work and
function well, and that buildings and loan situation worked well
for us. It developed notly. It gave people the homes
they needed to give out the loans, and then it's
time ended. It's a whole different ballgame today.
Speaker 20 (08:30):
They survived until about nineteen ninety one or so, and
then there was that savings and loan crisis that occurred
there because there was some reformulations that went on the
government got involved and a lot of savings and loans
went under because of the regulation change.
Speaker 14 (08:48):
Charles Keating Junior has come to symbolize the savings and
loan scandal in this country. Keating now in prison in
California for his conviction on security fraud charges. Was characteristically
confident when he emerged from the federal courthouse in Tucson
on March eighteenth, moments before, he had asserted his Fifth
(09:10):
Amendment rights against self incrimination when questioned by attorneys for
seventeen thousand investors who have filed a class action lawsuit
against him. Keating's reaction to his latest day in court.
But attorneys for the investors are not laughing. They have
(09:30):
built a case against Keating as former owner of Lincoln
Savings and Loan, leveling a myriad of charges against him.
At the heart of their case is a scam, they
claim gave the illusion that Lincoln Savings was making money
millions of dollars, when in fact the savings and Loan
was losing money.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Comedian Dana Carvey reprises his role as George Bailey on
the TV show Saturday Night Live nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 17 (10:00):
Laturday Night Live will not be seen tonight so that
we may bring you the following holiday movie presentation.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
What concerns this committee is how a small savings and
loan could somehow end up costing the taxpayers nearly two
billion dollars.
Speaker 17 (10:17):
Well, well, mister chairman, you're thinking of this thing all wrong.
Is if the money's in a safe somewhere, the money's
not here. It's in vast unsold real estate projects sitting
out in the middle of the desert. It's in salaries
and bonuses, huge ones for me and my family for
crying out loud. It's in your swimming pool, Bob, It's
(10:40):
in your vacation home, Steve, and it's in.
Speaker 15 (10:42):
Your new Ferrari bill.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
The money's not here.
Speaker 21 (10:46):
It's just just out there, federally insured to help people
like you and me.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
What do you need?
Speaker 5 (10:53):
What do you need?
Speaker 21 (10:54):
Well, well, fifty thousand times, mister belly Sit down, huh,
sit down?
Speaker 15 (10:59):
I mean, Jimmy Sewery is it's so interesting now? I mean,
are there greedy people? Are there out there? You know,
people out there trying to cheat the system? Of course
there are, of course there are, But there's just the
vast majority of people that work in finance are just
trying to do good and get ahead.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Richard maugrin Wells, longtime investment banker.
Speaker 15 (11:23):
I went to college here at US in southern California,
and then law school up in Hastings up in San Francisco,
and then I started in banking, and I actually worked
for a Japanese bank initially and then went to City
Bank for fifteen years. I did a stinted merrill. I
did a stint at Wells Fargo, and along the way
I picked up my MBA at NYU, and I had
(11:44):
stars in my eyes and I was going to be,
you know, that next Wall Street Charlie Sheen character. So
I saw myself climbing that corporate ladder, and I did
eventually run the loan group for City Bank in Japan.
It was some fun and some heady times. It is
very big and some very flashy deals.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
You remember the movie Wall Street's Gordon Gecko from the
previous episode.
Speaker 17 (12:07):
In the last seven deals that I've been involved with,
there were two point five million stockholders who have made
a pre tax profit of twelve billion dollars.
Speaker 6 (12:18):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a
liberator of them.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Like Bud Fox in the movie Wall Street. Richard followed
Gecko's lead, first to a prominent position at Citibank, but
by the time the two thousand and eight financial crisis
and Great Recession hit he had become a bank regulator,
and he was soon astounded by what he was learning
about how it had all gone down.
Speaker 15 (12:48):
I'm probably the only person you're going to talk to
who's actually read all of Dodd Frank. I'm also probably
the only person you will meet that has a framed
copy of Dodd Frank and Senator Dodd and Congressman Frank,
the eighteen hundred pages of Dodd Frank. I was actually
reading at the time and going through some of the
(13:09):
failures and things that were going on, and I happened
to watch. Of course, Good Old Wonderful Life came on.
So Uncle Billy is heading over to deposit the money,
and I thought, do you really want a drunk depositing
your money for your branch? Like that's a terrible idea.
And then it occurred to me, there's a lot of
(13:30):
problems with the Bailey Savings loan. I mean, if Potter.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Gets a hold of this building and loan, they'll never
be another decent house bill in this town. He's already
got charged with the bank, he's got the bus line,
he got the department stores, and now he's after us. Why. Well,
it's very simple, because we're cutting in on his business.
That's why, because he wants to keep you living in
his slums and paying the kind of red. He decides, Joe,
you had one of those Potter houses and you will
have you forgotten? Have you forgotten what he charged you
(13:55):
for that broken down shack here? Ed you know you
remember last year when things weren't going so well you
couldn't make your payments or you didn't lose your house?
Did you you think Potter would.
Speaker 11 (14:03):
Have let you keep it?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Can't you understand what's happening here? Don't you see what's happening.
Potter isn't selling. Potter's buying.
Speaker 15 (14:11):
Why was Potter buying at a time when everybody else
was selling? Warren Buffett said, it be fearful when others
are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. The famous
line is that the Krupp family bought land in Germany
during the plague, So of course, I mean, does that
make him evil? Well in some ways yes, But the
(14:32):
reality is that opportunity is opportunity, and you're going to
buy when things are down. That just means being a
good businessman. At the end of the day, I mean,
what makes a decent home built in the south, right,
I mean, would Potter ever make another home loan? Well,
sure he would, But is he going to lend at
the same ratios as Bailey. Probably not. Potter might require
(14:56):
twice as much income. So not wrong by saying another
decent house will never get built if the ratios that
are required to meet the income requirements to get that
loan are so radically skewed, So he's not wrong. Potter
is going to run the bank in a very different
way than the Bailey family has for however forty years
(15:19):
or whatever it is. So it's going to be a
very different institution with very different loan guidelines, and yeah,
could change the way houses are built in that town, right.
And the Potter method of greed is good and Bailey's
(15:40):
method of I'm here to help my community through lending
are very different approaches. I mean, it's a happy ending
that everyone shows up and throws in their ones and twos,
but it's really the big credit line from his friend
that saves the institution, and that twenty five thou an
our credit line huge in that day and age, obviously,
(16:04):
is enough to save the bank. But it's not a
free credit line. It's still borrowing money, He's still leveraging
up the institution. So it's great, it saves them for
a day, But what happens tomorrow, What happens the next day,
and when they have to start making interest payments on
that credit line of credit, are they going to increase
(16:27):
the interest they have to charge their shareholders. Maybe I
don't want to be the cynical guy here, but I
think the reality is that he's leveraging up the institution,
and that can't be ignored. If you look at what
happened in eight the kind of subprime lending that took
place was obviously greed is good. They were lending anybody
(16:50):
who could sign the paperwork, because you were going to
sell it on to securities and you're going to securitize
the whole package and push it down the road.
Speaker 21 (17:00):
How about Jimmy Jimmy Stewart explains the banking crisis, because
all I ever knew about banking was from It's a
Wonderful Life, mister Potter.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
There's a run on the bank, you know, kind of
Dana Carvey again. You see Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
Speaker 21 (17:14):
See, they took the bad mortgages and they packaged them
into an investment vehicle kind of like a security said yeah,
and then they got Moody to put four stars on
them and S and P, you know, and they sold
them to investors. But they knew they were bad, so
they did a thing. They sharded them. Say so they
(17:34):
bet against them. Why they sold them, so if they lose,
they win. If they win, they win, and you all
to put together, well, fuck you.
Speaker 15 (17:45):
But what we didn't see is and what happened was
that the George Bailey's the home drifts got sucked into
the Potter world. That's how I would equate it. The
home savings and things like that. All the savings and
(18:07):
loans were lured by that whole concept of we're going
to package your loans for you and you'll make a fortune.
I lost a lot of money in real estate in
two thousand and eight. Actually I was very long in
real estate. And made me very angry, very angry, because
what you saw was you saw people that were in
(18:30):
the know that knew that they were doing no income
lending right, They weren't verifying, they knew, they knew, and
the Potters of the world. You look at the people
that were charged and investigated Mozilla at the countrywide some
(18:51):
of the others. These are people that would put Potter
to shame. These were people that were so little greedy
that they were going to to do whatever it took
to get that next big deal. And the scale of it,
you know, was phenomenal obviously, I mean what what Leman
(19:12):
and others were doing. The people I really fault, the
people that are the Potters of our world, are the
people that we're saying I will make you alone and
don't worry about verifying your your income and we'll just
ignore all those basic credit rules and lend you the
money because I just I'm going to hand it right
(19:35):
off and I don't care about it. The thing knew
the game, and they cheated, and they really and they
wound to just unbelievably rich, unbelievably rich.
Speaker 19 (19:46):
As a result.
Speaker 15 (19:47):
And you shouldn't be a multi billionaire if you're running
savings alone. At the end of the day, it's alwerous
to it.
Speaker 16 (19:55):
I'm going to get a pancake when just one Yeah,
I'll need the egg today.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Okay, all right, thanks, We're back in Seneca Falls again.
A recent morning inside the town's only coffee shop, well
other than Duncan Donuts Cafe nineteen, adjacent to the Generation's
bank headquarters building sits across the street from the river.
(20:22):
Casey Galloway talks with Menzo Case, the town's community banker.
You heard Casey briefly in an earlier episode running the
Cinnamon role leading contest during the Wonderful Life Festival.
Speaker 16 (20:37):
Well, you heard about our little development with the town.
We're gonna do Bailey Parks. So they've got twenty acres
over there on Courtland av Oh seriously, yeah, behind me,
behind kids Territory.
Speaker 12 (20:54):
I'm going to see.
Speaker 16 (20:55):
Yeah, our part, Yeah working. I didn't know that the
ten units. All we gotta do is come up with
a couple million dollars. Yeah, I got it all. I'm
so excited. I can't believe it.
Speaker 22 (21:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 23 (21:12):
Yeah, So I own the cafe. Yeah, release it from
the bank. We pay seventeen hundred a month. My family
lives here, so that's a big thing. I'm very close
to my family. But also I did live in Baltimore
for about a year and a half and I just
decided that city life wasn't for me. Menzo Case approached
(21:33):
me about ten years ago to put a restaurant into
the bank headquarters that they were building. At that point,
we didn't really have a cafe in town, and I
think he just saw a need for a for a
cafe in the town because he knows what type of
atmosphere they produce. And you know, he wasn't wrong, like
(21:58):
the town wanted something like this. And I've always loved
the atmosphere of a cafe because it brings the community together.
Like you know, there's people that are here on a
morning when you come in that may not have known
each other ten years ago, but they come in like
the same time as somebody else every day and they've
gotten to know each other.
Speaker 11 (22:23):
To me, mister Gower George Bailey, all right, yes.
Speaker 22 (22:26):
Sir.
Speaker 12 (22:28):
So.
Speaker 23 (22:28):
One of the scenes in Its Wonderful Life that does
stand out to me a lot is a scene where
mister Gower almost poisoned somebody and George stopped him from
doing that.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
In Bedford Falls only coffee shop, Gower's drug Store, its
owner Amiel Gower, grieved the loss of his son and
young George stopped him from making a terrible mistake.
Speaker 11 (22:53):
Go if you don't know what you're doing, you put
something wrong in those capsules. I know you got the telegram.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
You're upset.
Speaker 11 (23:00):
He puts up the bad those capsules. It wasn't your
fa mister Gower. Just look and see what you did.
It's poisoned. To me, it's poisoned.
Speaker 15 (23:12):
I know you feel bad.
Speaker 8 (23:25):
Wants to go.
Speaker 23 (23:29):
The scene where Gower comes in and he's a drunkard
and his life is completely different.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Casey is talking about when we brought George to Pottersville
in a universe where he had never been born. The
outcome for Gower was very different.
Speaker 23 (23:49):
It's impactful because it just shows you that the difference
that one person can have on the whole world around them.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Basically, after Baltimore and before Cafe nine, Team Casey had
returned to the Seneca Falls area to be near her family.
She hoped to stay, but she was having trouble finding
an opportunity that would keep her there. She was thinking
about packing up and leaving when menso Case approached her.
Speaker 23 (24:17):
I wouldn't necessarily say that somebody saved me from a
really bad situation, but I can tell you that Menzo's
generosity in asking me if I wanted to run this cafe,
own the cafe and give me the opportunity, like learn
(24:37):
how to plan a restaurant and open it from the
ground up was invaluable and something that I don't know
if I would have ever had the opportunity to do
without his generosity and offering that up to me. Well,
Menzo gives off George Bailey vibes because he actually houses people.
(25:00):
He's actually every weekend building houses for families to live.
And he's physically there putting shingles on the roof and
run in plumbing lines, and you know, he might not
be an expert at it, but he's there giving his
time because he cares about people in the community and
housing people like that.
Speaker 16 (25:21):
When Jimmy Stewart runs to the bank from his honeymoon
from the tax he runs to the bank with all
his cash and he keeps the bank together.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Menso case, that's.
Speaker 16 (25:34):
What you do in a community, a small town. You
just you reach out to the other person, give him
a hand up.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
I am a housekeeper at the Gould Hotel in Seneca Falls.
I've been there for a little over a year now.
I love doing housekeeping. I love cleaning. It's just something
that I like to do.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
I like to I like to clean this is Jen Bernard,
a Seneca Falls resident. She's living in a cramped two
bedroom apartment with a husband, three kids, and two dogs.
She has been unable to find anything to buy, even
with their combined income.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
You know, our rent now is pretty high. You know,
we can obviously afford it. My husband's a manager at KFC.
I'll be working you know, a lot more. You know,
we've been here for almost five five years.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Then her sister in law suggested she talk to Menzo
about her housing situation.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
You know, you guys can't find a place ever. You
should really just try and apply and see what happens.
So we did it. Menzo gave us a call. We
went and you know, talked to him about everything, and
then we're like, yeah, I think we could figure you know,
figure everything out. And he got the process rolling, and
here we are, I mean, our house is I'm in along.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
Great.
Speaker 15 (27:01):
We just started again.
Speaker 17 (27:03):
But that's it.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
And then we're going to move into a four bedroom
and we you know, and we'll be there.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Resturn missus, Martiney, welcome home.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
We're with banker Menzo in a heavily wooded area near
the water tower at the outskirts of Seneca Falls. He
gets out of his car and looks around. The place
is littered with discarded tires and a broken TV.
Speaker 16 (27:32):
I'm hoping that we can get the Bailey Park sign
for the entrance, exactly as the movie has it, and
it's spent a dream. Now, we just got to come
up with the money to put the infrastructure and everything
else that comes with it, and families want to do this,
and a lot of families there's a need for it
right now. Look around for a home in Seneca Falls.
It's fair, you're not gonna find one. How we need
(27:52):
is two million.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Dollars, even from another universe. This is an example of
where George Bailey is having an impact on yours thanks
to Wonderful Life. Menzo keeps a framed poster of the
movie above his desk, and he's working to be George Bailey.
Speaker 16 (28:11):
This is big for us. This will be a big deal.
So it's gonna be who's gonna build it. I'm hoping
we'll get some contractors interested to provide a little low cost.
We'll pay him if we have to, but I'd rather not.
If we have to, We'll build one house at a time.
Speaker 12 (28:27):
You know, that's my end.
Speaker 16 (28:29):
Maybe there's a way community members might want to gather
fund a couple projects with the intent they'll be paid
back in the near term, not long term thirty year financing,
but maybe fund it for a year and then they'll
get their money back in a year. Maybe that's something
that will be of interest and sounds corny, but for
(28:51):
the betterment of the community, Well, I do this anyway.
So I would do it and then just start building.
The thing about for motion, there is none until there
is the Wonderful Life movie Bailey Park. That's the old
Savings Bank. That's what they used to do. So I've
always I've admired that whole idea of just we're just
(29:15):
going to do this, you know, there there's too much need.
I've interviewed a lot of families over the years, and
they live in subsidiary housing. It might be too small,
it might be just really bad and rules. As they
are renters, you know, they don't have a lot of rights,
and so we stand in the gap and we know
(29:38):
they won't stand, you know, so we'll get them in
a proper We'll get them in proper housing, and we'll
show them how to take care of the house. And
then most times it's successful. And that's really what we're
trying to do here.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Brand that this house may never know hunger salid, that
life may always have flavors wine, the joy, and prosperity
may reign whoever enter of the Martini Castle.
Speaker 6 (30:04):
If mister Martini comes into one of those banks today,
it doesn't he's not going to get that loan.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
You remember Brian Alexander from a previous episode, the investigative
journalist who went in search of what happened to the
Americans small town He got.
Speaker 6 (30:21):
The loan because the Baileys knew mister Martini, and they
knew his bar, and they knew that it was a
successful little bar, and that he was a good guy,
and they're going to lend him a little money to
try to get a decent house. That's not going to
happen when you do not have locally owned community banks.
(30:43):
You're going to have an algorithm formula that has to
go up to the national level, and they don't care
about what that local guy, what kind of a man
he is, or whatever. They're going to look at numbers.
The financial world has raided these small towns for their
assets and left behind a lot of destruction in their wake. Yeah,
(31:06):
the Potters, except the Potters are way way bigger than
mister Potter is in Bedford Falls. The mister Potters today
live on Central Park West and have homes second homes
in the Hamptons and maybe a home in Vale, and
have no connection at all with the community mister Potter
(31:27):
lived there. These guys don't even live there, and they
don't care to live there, and they don't care about
anybody who lives there. Today we have giant investment companies
like black Rock, for example, buying up hundreds and hundreds
of homes in an area and turning them into rentals.
(31:53):
So the biggest landlords now are big New York financial players.
So yeah, we have we now have you know, gigantic Potters.
Potter was one banker in a small town who had
Pottersville and was kind of a slumlord. But now we
(32:15):
have big financial players who are doing this all over America.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
This is Katerina Ulerio, a Ukrainian immigrant who has been
in Mamaraneck, New York for nearly twenty years. She sells
real estate there. This is the town Norman Rockwell grew
up in.
Speaker 12 (32:33):
Starter home in town is around seven hundred and fifty thousand,
you can find something for us, But that's kind of
you know, not often it comes up. Let me put
it this way, I would say that cumulatively, they really
should be looking at about one hundred and sixty two
hundred and eighty thousand dollars minimum a year in order
(32:54):
to really afford to live here. But again, you know,
this is like to be more or less comfortable. Truth
to be told, It's not a cheap place to live.
Wellchester County is one of the most expensive places to
live in the US. Right, So when we talk about
people who have regular jobs, most likely they will be
living in the two bedroom co op if they own,
(33:15):
or they will find a starter home or buy something
on the auction. Right. I purchased my house on the
online auction and it was just winterized and no lights,
no water. You know, I couldn't go and buy a
churn key house. I couldn't afford it. But I knew
(33:37):
I wanted to be in this area. So I think
where there is a will, there's a way. I have
some people who say, oh, but the raids are crazy
and I can never afford it. Sometimes I send them
to Fuller House of New York, which is used to
be a habitat for humanity, which it still is in
many places, but the one we have here they changed name.
(33:59):
If you value in teer with them and you get
a number of hours, you can get as zero percent loan,
or you can get like a down payment assistant. So
I think a lot of it is about having the
right resources as well and being educated about what your
options actually are. Very often it is about knowing what
you can afford and creating a plan and the strategy
(34:23):
of how you can actually make it what you want.
I believe that if you put your mind to it,
everything is achievable. It's just you cannot be dreaming about it.
You have to be doing something. But I think that
it's not going to be easy. Then somebody who is
making three hundred four hundred thousand a year and it
can be just buying a house, you know. But those
(34:45):
are the people who have more choices. But if you
still want to be an area and you're a regular
working person, you just have to be a little crafty
about it. Right now, owning sometimes it's cheaper than renting
if you can purchase, if you have a good credit
and decent income. You can purchase the co op here
(35:07):
for two hundred thousand dollars right, and if you are
to rent the same compatible apartment it will cost you
the same or more. So to me, it makes sense
to buy right, fix your credit, be smart with your money,
safe safe, safe, safe safe, and then get your own place.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Peterborough, New Hampshire inspired Thornton Wilder's Grover's Corners in his
play Our Town, which debuted only the month before Philip
van doren Stern had that dream that inspired Wonderful Life.
This is the owner of Peterborough's only movie theater, Vanessa
Amsbury Bonilla.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
Oh.
Speaker 22 (35:51):
Yes, for a small town, yeah, everybody knows everybody else.
You can't even walk down the street without saying someone
that you know, you know. It's we're a count of
six thousand people, you basically know most everyone. So in
that way, it's that reminds me of Bedford Falls. It's
a small town atmosphere. And of course the problem in
(36:12):
Peterborough is that we've got a lot of wealthy people
want wealthy old people, and they tend to call them
Undy's not in my backyard. They don't want apartments, they
don't want you know, duplexus. They don't want four plexis
if they want big, huge lots that you know with
big houses sprawling, you can't have that cost at least
(36:34):
five hundred thousand dollars and young people can't afford them.
But it preserves the character that they're looking for, you know.
They they're all about like, yeah, let's keep Peterborough weird.
You know, we love Harlow's Pub. We love these establishments
where we you know, want to go and eat, but
who's going to serve your meal? They totally forget that.
It's like, okay, you know, you love these really cute
places and go and have dinner. But then you complain
(36:56):
because they're only open four days a week instead of
seven days a week because they don't have enough staff.
But where are the staff's supposed to live? And arey're
not going to be coming in from an hour away
because that's the cheapest place where they can find housing.
So we have to be able to provide housing for
our working people.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
When Vanessa thinks about the George Bailey in Peterborough, it
would be.
Speaker 22 (37:18):
Ivy van She has been our house rep for a
long time. She just got voted out unfortunately, but she
has been for a really long time, and she definitely
is the voice around here.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
This is the Ivy that Vanessa mentioned. Ivy van the
former New Hampshire state representative, now an urban planner in Peterborough.
She believes the ultimate potters in small towns are many
of you NIMBYs.
Speaker 24 (37:51):
So yeah, it was NIMBYs, not in my backyard. Their
concern is that a multifamily will somehow degrade their nameighborhood.
But the fascinating thing is the good neighborhoods already has
small multi family and that's true all across New England.
Problems with housing are being driven by people who are
(38:13):
unwilling to change the zoning code to allow housing choice.
When you propose anything that's not another single family house
anywhere near them, their response is, well, I understand that
we need more housing, but this is just a bad
place for it. I believe strongly as a planner that
it is best to put the people where the people
(38:35):
already are. We have big lots that could become smaller
lots and have another building on them. We could have
some small multi families things like that. But Peterborough, like
all of the United States, has zoned about eighty percent
of its residential land area as single family only, and
that is problematic because we've overbuilt big single family houses
(39:01):
on big lots, and we have underbuilt every other form
of housing for the last fifty years. I did a
complete rewrite of the Peterborough zoning code in twenty seventeen
and twenty eighteen. It was a form based code, which
means that we talked about how big the buildings were
where they sat on the lot. It wasn't just numbers
of units. There were constraints about what the buildings had
(39:24):
to be like. And I almost got a bill that
would have made a fourplex legal on any lot in
the state of New Hampshire served by municipal water and sewer,
and we came very very close to passing that last year.
But people don't want to see multifamily anywhere near them.
(39:45):
The person who tabled the bill in the House and
prevented the vogue got up and said, we worked hard
to get our houses and we deserve to not have
a multifamily next door to us.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
I'm taking you back to Seneca Foles Now. Inside menzo
cases house, it's evening and he returns from work to
greet Susan his spouse.
Speaker 16 (40:06):
So are you going to the thing tonight?
Speaker 15 (40:11):
I'm tonight?
Speaker 16 (40:12):
All right, Well that's good. Oh here he is there
you are?
Speaker 15 (40:19):
Where do you got?
Speaker 10 (40:22):
Hey?
Speaker 15 (40:22):
What's going on?
Speaker 16 (40:23):
Show me the toy?
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Like George and Mary Bailey, Menzo and Susan Case have
known each other ever since grade school, fell in love,
and raised four kids. One of his three daughters, Raquel
Echoes of Zuzu, is now a young woman arriving at
their house with Menzo's toddler grandson.
Speaker 16 (40:43):
Look what I've found right here?
Speaker 25 (40:45):
Four more pieces here?
Speaker 22 (40:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 16 (40:51):
Where do they go?
Speaker 15 (40:53):
Right here?
Speaker 9 (40:53):
Here?
Speaker 11 (40:53):
It is right here?
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Yes, where's doc?
Speaker 22 (40:59):
Dok?
Speaker 13 (40:59):
Goes?
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Quack quack?
Speaker 16 (41:04):
What's the lamb do?
Speaker 8 (41:08):
George Bailey clearly cares about all the individuals that come
to his bank and want to invest and also have
their savings in their dad cares about his employees, about
the people that tries to create programs to really interact
with the community that it's needed. So like in George
Bailey's he cares about getting people into houses, making sure
(41:31):
that they have a house that they can live in
call their own instead of the slum areas that they
were stuck in that habitat for humanity. He's building the
homes to get people into the homes, to get them
out of these situ terrible housing situations, so that way
they have a home that they can afford and that
they can say, this is our home.
Speaker 12 (41:50):
How'd we meet?
Speaker 16 (41:51):
That's a good story.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
So we met. We were in kindergarten together, Menzo and
Susan Reminisce.
Speaker 16 (41:59):
She was in the cafeteria with her cousins the end of.
Speaker 10 (42:03):
The class line, and you were at the beginning of smile.
Speaker 9 (42:06):
Oh.
Speaker 16 (42:06):
Yeah, So she was in the cafeteria with her cousin Johnny,
and she was eating Brussels sprouts in kindergarten. Nobody eats
Brussels sprouce in kindergarten.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
So it was just this thing.
Speaker 16 (42:19):
That stuck in my mind. I still remember this day,
her eating Brussels sprous. It was weird. So that's where
we met. We went to school the whole time together,
and we knew each other. Yeah, But finally I asked
her out. I called her on the phone and I
said would you And before I finished the sentence, she
(42:40):
said yes. And she was the only woman I ever dated.
She's the only I never dated any other women or
any of the girls in school, so it was the
only one. And truth be known, she kissed me first,
and I won't tell you the story, but she kissed
me first, so I knew I was gonna marry that girl.
We were in the core and I was about to
(43:04):
go to Okinawa and.
Speaker 25 (43:06):
Then when there's there's room, I will come you know,
I will come back and get you and we'll travel out.
Because Sue was very shy, Cinderella's story came back and
then we h got married immediately there.
Speaker 10 (43:23):
And my parents had a dairy farm, so Menzo worked
on the dairy farm, went to college, and I.
Speaker 8 (43:31):
Was at McDonald's. I was a manager for McDonald's.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
It being that time of year, the family decided to
watch a Christmas movie on TV in a living room
that looks straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. In fact,
Rockwell Prince hang on the walls.
Speaker 8 (43:48):
What streaming platform has that?
Speaker 3 (43:50):
Do we know?
Speaker 16 (43:51):
I would just do a roku in search, including up
up right there we've got Prime Wonderful Life. Hey, great
Big Winner, Oh the black.
Speaker 20 (44:13):
Version, last version?
Speaker 16 (44:16):
We want skip good?
Speaker 22 (44:23):
See that?
Speaker 16 (44:23):
Now that's like my bells.
Speaker 26 (44:32):
George Bailey was never born visit Save George Bailey dot
com to join the mission. There you'll find links to
works by this episode's participants. Learn more about how to
celebrate George Bailey Day on Saturday, December ninth, and annually
the second Saturday of December hereafter by hosting your own
Wonderful Life viewing party. Tell your friends to listen to
(44:53):
this show, subscribe, like, comment, and post about it on
social media hashtags save George Bailey. Scribe to our patreon
to hear uncut interviews and bonus content. The podcast also
available on YouTube. iHeartMedia presents a double asterisk iHeartMedia co
production in association with True Stories Created, written and directed
(45:14):
by Joseph kurt Angfer and Reyno Vashlski kurt Angfer, producer
and supervising editor, Rayno Vashlsky, producer and journalist, Elizabeth Marcus editor,
Roy Sillings narrator. George Bailey theme song by Carolyn Sills
Buyer albums soundtrack composed by Zachary Walter by his Albums
and the original soundtrack to this podcast available wherever you
(45:37):
get your music. Mallory Keenoi co producer, writer's assistant, archival
producer and fact checker, John Autry, sound engineer, additional editing,
sound design and mix. Executive producers Dave Cassidy, Kurt Angfer,
Lindsay Hoffman and Bethan Macaluso for iHeartMedia, John Duffy for
Double Asterisk, Ruth Vodka for True Stories, Reyno Voshewsky for
(46:01):
Double Asterisk and True Stories, Elizabeth Hankouch. Associate producer Brandon
Lavoy and Ryan Pennington. Consulting producers Keith Sklar, contract Legal,
Peter Yazi Copyright and Fair Use Legal, Mattie Acres, archival specialist,
ron Kaddition, Benji Michaels, publicists Kaveasanthanam and Marley Weaver. Marketing
(46:24):
and promotions. Art and web design by Aaron Kim. Interns
were Kyra Gray, Emma Ramirez, Eva Stewart, and Tia Wilson.
Podcast license for Philip Van Doren Stearns The Greatest Gift
provided by the Greatest Gift Corporation. Their attorney is Kevin Koloff.
Recorded at David Weber's Airtime Studios in Bloomington, Indiana. This
(46:44):
episode featured in chronological order, Kelly Gilfoyle, Alisia Clark, Gene
van Stein, John Demmer, John Simcoe, Charles Keating Junior, Richard Maugren, Wells,
Menzo case, Casey Galloway, Jen Bernard, Brian Alexander, Katerina, Uleio,
Vanessa Amsbury, Bonia Ivy, Van Susan case, Raquel Martin and
(47:07):
Raquel's young son, The people of Seneca Falls, and the
cast of Wonderful Life, and the brief voices, music and
artistry of the cast of Saturday Night Live, Michael Douglas,
Stana Carvey, and news media professionals used under the still
existing legal doctrine of fair use. The Potters are working
on that one, though additional help provided by Rick Newman.
Seneca Falls. Lodging for crew provided by Twila Keeler. If
(47:30):
you're in Nutley, New Jersey, visit the Nutley Historical Society
and Museum, the Mudhole, Nutley Avenue, where Francis Goodrich grew up,
and the Sledding Hill. If you're in Peterborough, New Hampshire,
see a movie at the Peterborough Community Theater. Catch a
play from the Peterborough Players who first performed Thornton Wilder's
Our Town in nineteen forty, and visit the Lovely Shops restaurants,
(47:51):
breweries and coffee houses, but tip your servers well and
maybe say hi to former State Rep. Ivy Van. If
you're in Mamerineck, New York, visit their local business, Norman
Rockwell's Childhood Home and Fuller House Affordable Housing Initiative. If
you're looking for a home, go to Hulahan Lawrence and
ask for Katerina. And if you're in Seneca Falls, visit
the Wonderful Life Museum, Drink Like a Girl Cafe, Nineteen
(48:12):
Generations Bank, Seneca County Habitat for Humanity, the Gould Hotel,
and I Guess Dunkin Donuts. If you want go to
double Asteriskmedia dot com to hear. Are other limited run
podcasts Who Is Rich Blee After the Uprising with a
bold new season in Saint Louis coming summer twenty twenty
four and Origins Birth of a Pandemic, and subscribe to
(48:34):
True Stories New Weekly Everybody Has a podcast with Ruth
and Ray. If you are feeling like you're on the bridge,
please call the AFSP's suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing
nine to eight eight into your phone, or contact the
crisis text line by texting seven four to one, Dash
seven four to one. Consider donating to our volunteering with
(48:55):
AFSP or your local Habitat for Humanity, and make George
Bailey proud. We're not affiliated with them though Copyright twenty
twenty three double asterisk ink no god brid
It's founder of It's a Wonderful Tasting and Drinkling a Girl.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Another day, in Seneca Falls, New York, two best friends,
Kelly and Alicia, steal a few smokes inside a car
parked outside a brewery on Fall Street where they're hosting
another of their tasting events. Inside the place is packed
with mostly tourists sampling beers.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm the founder of Drinking a Girl. We actually create
events around craft beer and women in empowerment, and we
came and worked with Fall Street Brewing and we're offering
that it's a wonderful tasting. So the It's Wonderful Tasting
consists of five wineries and five breweries that are all
women down or vest rights investment.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I know what I'm going to do tomorrow and the
next day, and next year and a year after that.
I'm shaking the dust of this crummy little town off
my feet, and I'm going to see the world Italy, Greece,
the Parthenon, the Coliseum. Then I'm coming back here and
go to college and see what they know.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
I left for opportunity.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
I left originally to do childcare and kind of fell
into the whole world of accounting and had my son
and came back. That's why I came.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
That's my story and nutshell, are you.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Listen to me? I don't want any plastics, I don't
want any ground floors, and I don't want to get
married evert anyone. You understand that I want to do
what I.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
Want to do to get George Bailey well for the
for the family aspect. If I had no roots in New
York City, I just went there for my own And
then when I had my son in my head, we
were going to stay out there forever and he's gonna
have all the opportunity.
Speaker 6 (01:36):
And I saw him and I was.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Like, I gotta get out here.
Speaker 7 (01:37):
Too many people were my bad leg.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
That's what happened.
Speaker 8 (01:40):
In Sure, Yeah, in Sure?
Speaker 9 (01:44):
What is JU want?
Speaker 10 (01:44):
Right?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
You want the moon? If you do, just say the word,
I'll throw a lash ale around it, pull her down
for you, perflo gil.
Speaker 11 (01:53):
Won't you come out tonight? Won't you come out tonight?
Won't you come out tonight?
Speaker 8 (01:57):
Perfello girl?
Speaker 11 (01:58):
Won't you come out?
Speaker 9 (02:00):
No? Hi?
Speaker 12 (02:16):
All right?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Why in the world do you ever marry a guy
like me?
Speaker 11 (02:24):
What do you keep from being an old maid?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I'm married Sam Wayne right and anybody else in town.
Speaker 12 (02:31):
I didn't want to marry anybody else in town.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
I want my baby to look like you.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I didn't even have a honeybo you.
Speaker 9 (02:39):
I promised you.
Speaker 13 (02:41):
You're what my baby, You're You're nor you you on
the nest George Bailey, Lasso Stork.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Oh why I loved. I left to go to college.
So I went to fast school at the Fashioned Suit
Technology UH when my daughter was one, when I was
accepted into it, so I went out there her and
I lived there for most of her life, most of
my adult life and uh sadly lost a brother and
came for a summer. My daughter convinced me stay. She's
(03:13):
about eleven at the time and wanted to be close
to the family as well. It is about small towns.
Small towns, you know, regardless of there's a lot of
things that you're like, Ah, I don't want to be
in this town. The does the dirt off my shoes
travel the world. It's real and then you know when
it comes back. Never when it comes down though, when family,
(03:35):
family matters, and small towns you do have that support
and that love and that that community you can't get
anywhere else. It's yeah, take out every time?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Why do we have.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
To live here in the first place and stay around
this measly from the old town?
Speaker 14 (03:50):
What's wrong?
Speaker 15 (03:51):
Wrong everything?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
You call this a happy family? Why do we have
to have all these kids?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
She got me in a way of the sadness. But
we weren't coming back, yeh, you know, it wasn't happening.
And then you know, but you lose family and you're like, wait,
how important is it to be in those towns where
your family.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
Are like you're missing all that time away from them?
Speaker 11 (04:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
And yeah, So Buffalo.
Speaker 7 (04:15):
Girls, can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 8 (04:17):
Can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 16 (04:18):
Can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 17 (04:20):
Buffalo girls, can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 9 (04:25):
By the Oh, Joe, I'm outside, Joe sang, yeah, Christmas.
Speaker 7 (04:42):
If you make me cry, Joe.
Speaker 18 (04:59):
I don't think the There is a scene in the
first two thirds of that movie that you couldn't plaques
to a certain specific area of Nutley.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
You're in Nutley, New Jersey, once a small town just
outside New York City, now a kind of suburb. This
is where Francis Goodrich, the Wonderful Life screenwriter, grew up,
and three of the town historians are having a conversation.
Speaker 18 (05:23):
You know, we have a sledding hill that's famous.
Speaker 15 (05:25):
We have sixt door here.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Brady, my kid brudder, Harry Braley. I'm not scar.
Speaker 18 (05:43):
That famous skating area called the mud Hole, which is
very personal where kids would have gone to and have
memories of doing that kind of thing, of going out
on the ice and.
Speaker 19 (05:54):
Maybe even breaking through.
Speaker 18 (05:55):
Who knows. For good Rich, I could easily see where
you could take any scene from that first two Thursds
of the movie and located to somewhere in Nutley.
Speaker 9 (06:04):
Did it you rented a new house?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Rent you?
Speaker 11 (06:09):
Hear what he says, the billy I owned my house.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
He was every Martine. I owned my own the house.
Speaker 18 (06:17):
No more we live like a page in this apotus field.
Speaker 20 (06:20):
Prior to nineteen forty one, we had five building and
loans in Nutley. They started actually back in the late
eighteen hundreds where they were lending money out to people
to build businesses, to build houses. And then with the
banking changes in nineteen forty one, those five building and
loans became one Nutley Savings alone, and that was the
one of the dominant banks here in town that helped
(06:42):
the fund all these people that were coming back into town.
So that was like a big part of managing the
money that was here in town, that wealthy people had
and redistributing it so to speak to the people that
were hard working people, you know, blue collar jobs here
in town, so that those people could rise up through
society and be able to get it in maybe a
second car, get their own home, move out of an
(07:05):
apartment building, have a yard. So John Dolan, who was
one of the leaders that the Savans a Loan, built
it up dramatically, and he was probably one of the
more beloved people here in town.
Speaker 10 (07:16):
When I moved here in nineteen fifty three, the Dolan brothers,
we're running the Savings and Loan in town. In fact,
they held the mortgage on our house. You knew them.
Speaker 19 (07:30):
He's the closest, He's the closest to George Bailey out
So he was really one of those individuals that took
his organization, made a great profit for the organization, and
the board of directors were happy.
Speaker 20 (07:41):
But at the same point, they built the town, solid,
solid foundation for the town.
Speaker 18 (07:46):
The bank president was the first desk when you went
into the bank, and the bank president knew what you
did and if you needed something, you talk to him
and he knew who you were and they knew your family.
And that doesn't happen anymore.
Speaker 12 (07:57):
Now.
Speaker 18 (07:57):
It's a form you fill out and then some computer
tells you whether you hit the mark as to whether
that loan comes.
Speaker 9 (08:02):
To you or not.
Speaker 10 (08:03):
Well, John Dolan used to go personally to practically every
house that he was going to give a mortgage to.
Speaker 18 (08:10):
I don't think there's an equivalent at all. I don't
believe that there is any. I think certain things have
their life and their time period where they work and
function well, and that buildings and loan situation worked well
for us. It developed notly. It gave people the homes
they needed to give out the loans, and then it's
time ended. It's a whole different ballgame today.
Speaker 20 (08:30):
They survived until about nineteen ninety one or so, and
then there was that savings and loan crisis that occurred
there because there was some reformulations that went on the
government got involved and a lot of savings and loans
went under because of the regulation change.
Speaker 14 (08:48):
Charles Keating Junior has come to symbolize the savings and
loan scandal in this country. Keating now in prison in
California for his conviction on security fraud charges. Was characteristically
confident when he emerged from the federal courthouse in Tucson
on March eighteenth, moments before, he had asserted his Fifth
(09:10):
Amendment rights against self incrimination when questioned by attorneys for
seventeen thousand investors who have filed a class action lawsuit
against him. Keating's reaction to his latest day in court.
But attorneys for the investors are not laughing. They have
(09:30):
built a case against Keating as former owner of Lincoln
Savings and Loan, leveling a myriad of charges against him.
At the heart of their case is a scam, they
claim gave the illusion that Lincoln Savings was making money
millions of dollars, when in fact the savings and Loan
was losing money.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Comedian Dana Carvey reprises his role as George Bailey on
the TV show Saturday Night Live nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 17 (10:00):
Laturday Night Live will not be seen tonight so that
we may bring you the following holiday movie presentation.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
What concerns this committee is how a small savings and
loan could somehow end up costing the taxpayers nearly two
billion dollars.
Speaker 17 (10:17):
Well, well, mister chairman, you're thinking of this thing all wrong.
Is if the money's in a safe somewhere, the money's
not here. It's in vast unsold real estate projects sitting
out in the middle of the desert. It's in salaries
and bonuses, huge ones for me and my family for
crying out loud. It's in your swimming pool, Bob, It's
(10:40):
in your vacation home, Steve, and it's in.
Speaker 15 (10:42):
Your new Ferrari bill.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
The money's not here.
Speaker 21 (10:46):
It's just just out there, federally insured to help people
like you and me.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
What do you need?
Speaker 5 (10:53):
What do you need?
Speaker 21 (10:54):
Well, well, fifty thousand times, mister belly Sit down, huh,
sit down?
Speaker 15 (10:59):
I mean, Jimmy Sewery is it's so interesting now? I mean,
are there greedy people? Are there out there? You know,
people out there trying to cheat the system? Of course
there are, of course there are, But there's just the
vast majority of people that work in finance are just
trying to do good and get ahead.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Richard maugrin Wells, longtime investment banker.
Speaker 15 (11:23):
I went to college here at US in southern California,
and then law school up in Hastings up in San Francisco,
and then I started in banking, and I actually worked
for a Japanese bank initially and then went to City
Bank for fifteen years. I did a stinted merrill. I
did a stint at Wells Fargo, and along the way
I picked up my MBA at NYU, and I had
(11:44):
stars in my eyes and I was going to be,
you know, that next Wall Street Charlie Sheen character. So
I saw myself climbing that corporate ladder, and I did
eventually run the loan group for City Bank in Japan.
It was some fun and some heady times. It is
very big and some very flashy deals.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
You remember the movie Wall Street's Gordon Gecko from the
previous episode.
Speaker 17 (12:07):
In the last seven deals that I've been involved with,
there were two point five million stockholders who have made
a pre tax profit of twelve billion dollars.
Speaker 6 (12:18):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a
liberator of them.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Like Bud Fox in the movie Wall Street. Richard followed
Gecko's lead, first to a prominent position at Citibank, but
by the time the two thousand and eight financial crisis
and Great Recession hit he had become a bank regulator,
and he was soon astounded by what he was learning
about how it had all gone down.
Speaker 15 (12:48):
I'm probably the only person you're going to talk to
who's actually read all of Dodd Frank. I'm also probably
the only person you will meet that has a framed
copy of Dodd Frank and Senator Dodd and Congressman Frank,
the eighteen hundred pages of Dodd Frank. I was actually
reading at the time and going through some of the
(13:09):
failures and things that were going on, and I happened
to watch. Of course, Good Old Wonderful Life came on.
So Uncle Billy is heading over to deposit the money,
and I thought, do you really want a drunk depositing
your money for your branch? Like that's a terrible idea.
And then it occurred to me, there's a lot of
(13:30):
problems with the Bailey Savings loan. I mean, if Potter.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Gets a hold of this building and loan, they'll never
be another decent house bill in this town. He's already
got charged with the bank, he's got the bus line,
he got the department stores, and now he's after us. Why. Well,
it's very simple, because we're cutting in on his business.
That's why, because he wants to keep you living in
his slums and paying the kind of red. He decides, Joe,
you had one of those Potter houses and you will
have you forgotten? Have you forgotten what he charged you
(13:55):
for that broken down shack here? Ed you know you
remember last year when things weren't going so well you
couldn't make your payments or you didn't lose your house?
Did you you think Potter would.
Speaker 11 (14:03):
Have let you keep it?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Can't you understand what's happening here? Don't you see what's happening.
Potter isn't selling. Potter's buying.
Speaker 15 (14:11):
Why was Potter buying at a time when everybody else
was selling? Warren Buffett said, it be fearful when others
are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. The famous
line is that the Krupp family bought land in Germany
during the plague, So of course, I mean, does that
make him evil? Well in some ways yes, But the
(14:32):
reality is that opportunity is opportunity, and you're going to
buy when things are down. That just means being a
good businessman. At the end of the day, I mean,
what makes a decent home built in the south, right,
I mean, would Potter ever make another home loan? Well,
sure he would, But is he going to lend at
the same ratios as Bailey. Probably not. Potter might require
(14:56):
twice as much income. So not wrong by saying another
decent house will never get built if the ratios that
are required to meet the income requirements to get that
loan are so radically skewed, So he's not wrong. Potter
is going to run the bank in a very different
way than the Bailey family has for however forty years
(15:19):
or whatever it is. So it's going to be a
very different institution with very different loan guidelines, and yeah,
could change the way houses are built in that town, right.
And the Potter method of greed is good and Bailey's
(15:40):
method of I'm here to help my community through lending
are very different approaches. I mean, it's a happy ending
that everyone shows up and throws in their ones and twos,
but it's really the big credit line from his friend
that saves the institution, and that twenty five thou an
our credit line huge in that day and age, obviously,
(16:04):
is enough to save the bank. But it's not a
free credit line. It's still borrowing money, He's still leveraging
up the institution. So it's great, it saves them for
a day, But what happens tomorrow, What happens the next day,
and when they have to start making interest payments on
that credit line of credit, are they going to increase
(16:27):
the interest they have to charge their shareholders. Maybe I
don't want to be the cynical guy here, but I
think the reality is that he's leveraging up the institution,
and that can't be ignored. If you look at what
happened in eight the kind of subprime lending that took
place was obviously greed is good. They were lending anybody
(16:50):
who could sign the paperwork, because you were going to
sell it on to securities and you're going to securitize
the whole package and push it down the road.
Speaker 21 (17:00):
How about Jimmy Jimmy Stewart explains the banking crisis, because
all I ever knew about banking was from It's a
Wonderful Life, mister Potter.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
There's a run on the bank, you know, kind of
Dana Carvey again. You see Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
Speaker 21 (17:14):
See, they took the bad mortgages and they packaged them
into an investment vehicle kind of like a security said yeah,
and then they got Moody to put four stars on
them and S and P, you know, and they sold
them to investors. But they knew they were bad, so
they did a thing. They sharded them. Say so they
(17:34):
bet against them. Why they sold them, so if they lose,
they win. If they win, they win, and you all
to put together, well, fuck you.
Speaker 15 (17:45):
But what we didn't see is and what happened was
that the George Bailey's the home drifts got sucked into
the Potter world. That's how I would equate it. The
home savings and things like that. All the savings and
(18:07):
loans were lured by that whole concept of we're going
to package your loans for you and you'll make a fortune.
I lost a lot of money in real estate in
two thousand and eight. Actually I was very long in
real estate. And made me very angry, very angry, because
what you saw was you saw people that were in
(18:30):
the know that knew that they were doing no income
lending right, They weren't verifying, they knew, they knew, and
the Potters of the world. You look at the people
that were charged and investigated Mozilla at the countrywide some
(18:51):
of the others. These are people that would put Potter
to shame. These were people that were so little greedy
that they were going to to do whatever it took
to get that next big deal. And the scale of it,
you know, was phenomenal obviously, I mean what what Leman
(19:12):
and others were doing. The people I really fault, the
people that are the Potters of our world, are the
people that we're saying I will make you alone and
don't worry about verifying your your income and we'll just
ignore all those basic credit rules and lend you the
money because I just I'm going to hand it right
(19:35):
off and I don't care about it. The thing knew
the game, and they cheated, and they really and they
wound to just unbelievably rich, unbelievably rich.
Speaker 19 (19:46):
As a result.
Speaker 15 (19:47):
And you shouldn't be a multi billionaire if you're running
savings alone. At the end of the day, it's alwerous
to it.
Speaker 16 (19:55):
I'm going to get a pancake when just one Yeah,
I'll need the egg today.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Okay, all right, thanks, We're back in Seneca Falls again.
A recent morning inside the town's only coffee shop, well
other than Duncan Donuts Cafe nineteen, adjacent to the Generation's
bank headquarters building sits across the street from the river.
(20:22):
Casey Galloway talks with Menzo Case, the town's community banker.
You heard Casey briefly in an earlier episode running the
Cinnamon role leading contest during the Wonderful Life Festival.
Speaker 16 (20:37):
Well, you heard about our little development with the town.
We're gonna do Bailey Parks. So they've got twenty acres
over there on Courtland av Oh seriously, yeah, behind me,
behind kids Territory.
Speaker 12 (20:54):
I'm going to see.
Speaker 16 (20:55):
Yeah, our part, Yeah working. I didn't know that the
ten units. All we gotta do is come up with
a couple million dollars. Yeah, I got it all. I'm
so excited. I can't believe it.
Speaker 22 (21:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 23 (21:12):
Yeah, So I own the cafe. Yeah, release it from
the bank. We pay seventeen hundred a month. My family
lives here, so that's a big thing. I'm very close
to my family. But also I did live in Baltimore
for about a year and a half and I just
decided that city life wasn't for me. Menzo Case approached
(21:33):
me about ten years ago to put a restaurant into
the bank headquarters that they were building. At that point,
we didn't really have a cafe in town, and I
think he just saw a need for a for a
cafe in the town because he knows what type of
atmosphere they produce. And you know, he wasn't wrong, like
(21:58):
the town wanted something like this. And I've always loved
the atmosphere of a cafe because it brings the community together.
Like you know, there's people that are here on a
morning when you come in that may not have known
each other ten years ago, but they come in like
the same time as somebody else every day and they've
gotten to know each other.
Speaker 11 (22:23):
To me, mister Gower George Bailey, all right, yes.
Speaker 22 (22:26):
Sir.
Speaker 12 (22:28):
So.
Speaker 23 (22:28):
One of the scenes in Its Wonderful Life that does
stand out to me a lot is a scene where
mister Gower almost poisoned somebody and George stopped him from
doing that.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
In Bedford Falls only coffee shop, Gower's drug Store, its
owner Amiel Gower, grieved the loss of his son and
young George stopped him from making a terrible mistake.
Speaker 11 (22:53):
Go if you don't know what you're doing, you put
something wrong in those capsules. I know you got the telegram.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
You're upset.
Speaker 11 (23:00):
He puts up the bad those capsules. It wasn't your
fa mister Gower. Just look and see what you did.
It's poisoned. To me, it's poisoned.
Speaker 15 (23:12):
I know you feel bad.
Speaker 8 (23:25):
Wants to go.
Speaker 23 (23:29):
The scene where Gower comes in and he's a drunkard
and his life is completely different.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Casey is talking about when we brought George to Pottersville
in a universe where he had never been born. The
outcome for Gower was very different.
Speaker 23 (23:49):
It's impactful because it just shows you that the difference
that one person can have on the whole world around them.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Basically, after Baltimore and before Cafe nine, Team Casey had
returned to the Seneca Falls area to be near her family.
She hoped to stay, but she was having trouble finding
an opportunity that would keep her there. She was thinking
about packing up and leaving when menso Case approached her.
Speaker 23 (24:17):
I wouldn't necessarily say that somebody saved me from a
really bad situation, but I can tell you that Menzo's
generosity in asking me if I wanted to run this cafe,
own the cafe and give me the opportunity, like learn
(24:37):
how to plan a restaurant and open it from the
ground up was invaluable and something that I don't know
if I would have ever had the opportunity to do
without his generosity and offering that up to me. Well,
Menzo gives off George Bailey vibes because he actually houses people.
(25:00):
He's actually every weekend building houses for families to live.
And he's physically there putting shingles on the roof and
run in plumbing lines, and you know, he might not
be an expert at it, but he's there giving his
time because he cares about people in the community and
housing people like that.
Speaker 16 (25:21):
When Jimmy Stewart runs to the bank from his honeymoon
from the tax he runs to the bank with all
his cash and he keeps the bank together.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Menso case, that's.
Speaker 16 (25:34):
What you do in a community, a small town. You
just you reach out to the other person, give him
a hand up.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
I am a housekeeper at the Gould Hotel in Seneca Falls.
I've been there for a little over a year now.
I love doing housekeeping. I love cleaning. It's just something
that I like to do.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
I like to I like to clean this is Jen Bernard,
a Seneca Falls resident. She's living in a cramped two
bedroom apartment with a husband, three kids, and two dogs.
She has been unable to find anything to buy, even
with their combined income.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
You know, our rent now is pretty high. You know,
we can obviously afford it. My husband's a manager at KFC.
I'll be working you know, a lot more. You know,
we've been here for almost five five years.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Then her sister in law suggested she talk to Menzo
about her housing situation.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
You know, you guys can't find a place ever. You
should really just try and apply and see what happens.
So we did it. Menzo gave us a call. We
went and you know, talked to him about everything, and
then we're like, yeah, I think we could figure you know,
figure everything out. And he got the process rolling, and
here we are, I mean, our house is I'm in along.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
Great.
Speaker 15 (27:01):
We just started again.
Speaker 17 (27:03):
But that's it.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
And then we're going to move into a four bedroom
and we you know, and we'll be there.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Resturn missus, Martiney, welcome home.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
We're with banker Menzo in a heavily wooded area near
the water tower at the outskirts of Seneca Falls. He
gets out of his car and looks around. The place
is littered with discarded tires and a broken TV.
Speaker 16 (27:32):
I'm hoping that we can get the Bailey Park sign
for the entrance, exactly as the movie has it, and
it's spent a dream. Now, we just got to come
up with the money to put the infrastructure and everything
else that comes with it, and families want to do this,
and a lot of families there's a need for it
right now. Look around for a home in Seneca Falls.
It's fair, you're not gonna find one. How we need
(27:52):
is two million.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Dollars, even from another universe. This is an example of
where George Bailey is having an impact on yours thanks
to Wonderful Life. Menzo keeps a framed poster of the
movie above his desk, and he's working to be George Bailey.
Speaker 16 (28:11):
This is big for us. This will be a big deal.
So it's gonna be who's gonna build it. I'm hoping
we'll get some contractors interested to provide a little low cost.
We'll pay him if we have to, but I'd rather not.
If we have to, We'll build one house at a time.
Speaker 12 (28:27):
You know, that's my end.
Speaker 16 (28:29):
Maybe there's a way community members might want to gather
fund a couple projects with the intent they'll be paid
back in the near term, not long term thirty year financing,
but maybe fund it for a year and then they'll
get their money back in a year. Maybe that's something
that will be of interest and sounds corny, but for
(28:51):
the betterment of the community, Well, I do this anyway.
So I would do it and then just start building.
The thing about for motion, there is none until there
is the Wonderful Life movie Bailey Park. That's the old
Savings Bank. That's what they used to do. So I've
always I've admired that whole idea of just we're just
(29:15):
going to do this, you know, there there's too much need.
I've interviewed a lot of families over the years, and
they live in subsidiary housing. It might be too small,
it might be just really bad and rules. As they
are renters, you know, they don't have a lot of rights,
and so we stand in the gap and we know
(29:38):
they won't stand, you know, so we'll get them in
a proper We'll get them in proper housing, and we'll
show them how to take care of the house. And
then most times it's successful. And that's really what we're
trying to do here.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Brand that this house may never know hunger salid, that
life may always have flavors wine, the joy, and prosperity
may reign whoever enter of the Martini Castle.
Speaker 6 (30:04):
If mister Martini comes into one of those banks today,
it doesn't he's not going to get that loan.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
You remember Brian Alexander from a previous episode, the investigative
journalist who went in search of what happened to the
Americans small town He got.
Speaker 6 (30:21):
The loan because the Baileys knew mister Martini, and they
knew his bar, and they knew that it was a
successful little bar, and that he was a good guy,
and they're going to lend him a little money to
try to get a decent house. That's not going to
happen when you do not have locally owned community banks.
(30:43):
You're going to have an algorithm formula that has to
go up to the national level, and they don't care
about what that local guy, what kind of a man
he is, or whatever. They're going to look at numbers.
The financial world has raided these small towns for their
assets and left behind a lot of destruction in their wake. Yeah,
(31:06):
the Potters, except the Potters are way way bigger than
mister Potter is in Bedford Falls. The mister Potters today
live on Central Park West and have homes second homes
in the Hamptons and maybe a home in Vale, and
have no connection at all with the community mister Potter
(31:27):
lived there. These guys don't even live there, and they
don't care to live there, and they don't care about
anybody who lives there. Today we have giant investment companies
like black Rock, for example, buying up hundreds and hundreds
of homes in an area and turning them into rentals.
(31:53):
So the biggest landlords now are big New York financial players.
So yeah, we have we now have you know, gigantic Potters.
Potter was one banker in a small town who had
Pottersville and was kind of a slumlord. But now we
(32:15):
have big financial players who are doing this all over America.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
This is Katerina Ulerio, a Ukrainian immigrant who has been
in Mamaraneck, New York for nearly twenty years. She sells
real estate there. This is the town Norman Rockwell grew
up in.
Speaker 12 (32:33):
Starter home in town is around seven hundred and fifty thousand,
you can find something for us, But that's kind of
you know, not often it comes up. Let me put
it this way, I would say that cumulatively, they really
should be looking at about one hundred and sixty two
hundred and eighty thousand dollars minimum a year in order
(32:54):
to really afford to live here. But again, you know,
this is like to be more or less comfortable. Truth
to be told, It's not a cheap place to live.
Wellchester County is one of the most expensive places to
live in the US. Right, So when we talk about
people who have regular jobs, most likely they will be
living in the two bedroom co op if they own,
(33:15):
or they will find a starter home or buy something
on the auction. Right. I purchased my house on the
online auction and it was just winterized and no lights,
no water. You know, I couldn't go and buy a
churn key house. I couldn't afford it. But I knew
(33:37):
I wanted to be in this area. So I think
where there is a will, there's a way. I have
some people who say, oh, but the raids are crazy
and I can never afford it. Sometimes I send them
to Fuller House of New York, which is used to
be a habitat for humanity, which it still is in
many places, but the one we have here they changed name.
(33:59):
If you value in teer with them and you get
a number of hours, you can get as zero percent loan,
or you can get like a down payment assistant. So
I think a lot of it is about having the
right resources as well and being educated about what your
options actually are. Very often it is about knowing what
you can afford and creating a plan and the strategy
(34:23):
of how you can actually make it what you want.
I believe that if you put your mind to it,
everything is achievable. It's just you cannot be dreaming about it.
You have to be doing something. But I think that
it's not going to be easy. Then somebody who is
making three hundred four hundred thousand a year and it
can be just buying a house, you know. But those
(34:45):
are the people who have more choices. But if you
still want to be an area and you're a regular
working person, you just have to be a little crafty
about it. Right now, owning sometimes it's cheaper than renting
if you can purchase, if you have a good credit
and decent income. You can purchase the co op here
(35:07):
for two hundred thousand dollars right, and if you are
to rent the same compatible apartment it will cost you
the same or more. So to me, it makes sense
to buy right, fix your credit, be smart with your money,
safe safe, safe, safe safe, and then get your own place.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Peterborough, New Hampshire inspired Thornton Wilder's Grover's Corners in his
play Our Town, which debuted only the month before Philip
van doren Stern had that dream that inspired Wonderful Life.
This is the owner of Peterborough's only movie theater, Vanessa
Amsbury Bonilla.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
Oh.
Speaker 22 (35:51):
Yes, for a small town, yeah, everybody knows everybody else.
You can't even walk down the street without saying someone
that you know, you know. It's we're a count of
six thousand people, you basically know most everyone. So in
that way, it's that reminds me of Bedford Falls. It's
a small town atmosphere. And of course the problem in
(36:12):
Peterborough is that we've got a lot of wealthy people
want wealthy old people, and they tend to call them
Undy's not in my backyard. They don't want apartments, they
don't want you know, duplexus. They don't want four plexis
if they want big, huge lots that you know with
big houses sprawling, you can't have that cost at least
(36:34):
five hundred thousand dollars and young people can't afford them.
But it preserves the character that they're looking for, you know.
They they're all about like, yeah, let's keep Peterborough weird.
You know, we love Harlow's Pub. We love these establishments
where we you know, want to go and eat, but
who's going to serve your meal? They totally forget that.
It's like, okay, you know, you love these really cute
places and go and have dinner. But then you complain
(36:56):
because they're only open four days a week instead of
seven days a week because they don't have enough staff.
But where are the staff's supposed to live? And arey're
not going to be coming in from an hour away
because that's the cheapest place where they can find housing.
So we have to be able to provide housing for
our working people.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
When Vanessa thinks about the George Bailey in Peterborough, it
would be.
Speaker 22 (37:18):
Ivy van She has been our house rep for a
long time. She just got voted out unfortunately, but she
has been for a really long time, and she definitely
is the voice around here.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
This is the Ivy that Vanessa mentioned. Ivy van the
former New Hampshire state representative, now an urban planner in Peterborough.
She believes the ultimate potters in small towns are many
of you NIMBYs.
Speaker 24 (37:51):
So yeah, it was NIMBYs, not in my backyard. Their
concern is that a multifamily will somehow degrade their nameighborhood.
But the fascinating thing is the good neighborhoods already has
small multi family and that's true all across New England.
Problems with housing are being driven by people who are
(38:13):
unwilling to change the zoning code to allow housing choice.
When you propose anything that's not another single family house
anywhere near them, their response is, well, I understand that
we need more housing, but this is just a bad
place for it. I believe strongly as a planner that
it is best to put the people where the people
(38:35):
already are. We have big lots that could become smaller
lots and have another building on them. We could have
some small multi families things like that. But Peterborough, like
all of the United States, has zoned about eighty percent
of its residential land area as single family only, and
that is problematic because we've overbuilt big single family houses
(39:01):
on big lots, and we have underbuilt every other form
of housing for the last fifty years. I did a
complete rewrite of the Peterborough zoning code in twenty seventeen
and twenty eighteen. It was a form based code, which
means that we talked about how big the buildings were
where they sat on the lot. It wasn't just numbers
of units. There were constraints about what the buildings had
(39:24):
to be like. And I almost got a bill that
would have made a fourplex legal on any lot in
the state of New Hampshire served by municipal water and sewer,
and we came very very close to passing that last year.
But people don't want to see multifamily anywhere near them.
(39:45):
The person who tabled the bill in the House and
prevented the vogue got up and said, we worked hard
to get our houses and we deserve to not have
a multifamily next door to us.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
I'm taking you back to Seneca Foles Now. Inside menzo
cases house, it's evening and he returns from work to
greet Susan his spouse.
Speaker 16 (40:06):
So are you going to the thing tonight?
Speaker 15 (40:11):
I'm tonight?
Speaker 16 (40:12):
All right, Well that's good. Oh here he is there
you are?
Speaker 15 (40:19):
Where do you got?
Speaker 10 (40:22):
Hey?
Speaker 15 (40:22):
What's going on?
Speaker 16 (40:23):
Show me the toy?
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Like George and Mary Bailey, Menzo and Susan Case have
known each other ever since grade school, fell in love,
and raised four kids. One of his three daughters, Raquel
Echoes of Zuzu, is now a young woman arriving at
their house with Menzo's toddler grandson.
Speaker 16 (40:43):
Look what I've found right here?
Speaker 25 (40:45):
Four more pieces here?
Speaker 22 (40:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 16 (40:51):
Where do they go?
Speaker 15 (40:53):
Right here?
Speaker 9 (40:53):
Here?
Speaker 11 (40:53):
It is right here?
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Yes, where's doc?
Speaker 22 (40:59):
Dok?
Speaker 13 (40:59):
Goes?
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Quack quack?
Speaker 16 (41:04):
What's the lamb do?
Speaker 8 (41:08):
George Bailey clearly cares about all the individuals that come
to his bank and want to invest and also have
their savings in their dad cares about his employees, about
the people that tries to create programs to really interact
with the community that it's needed. So like in George
Bailey's he cares about getting people into houses, making sure
(41:31):
that they have a house that they can live in
call their own instead of the slum areas that they
were stuck in that habitat for humanity. He's building the
homes to get people into the homes, to get them
out of these situ terrible housing situations, so that way
they have a home that they can afford and that
they can say, this is our home.
Speaker 12 (41:50):
How'd we meet?
Speaker 16 (41:51):
That's a good story.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
So we met. We were in kindergarten together, Menzo and
Susan Reminisce.
Speaker 16 (41:59):
She was in the cafeteria with her cousins the end of.
Speaker 10 (42:03):
The class line, and you were at the beginning of smile.
Speaker 9 (42:06):
Oh.
Speaker 16 (42:06):
Yeah, So she was in the cafeteria with her cousin Johnny,
and she was eating Brussels sprouts in kindergarten. Nobody eats
Brussels sprouce in kindergarten.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
So it was just this thing.
Speaker 16 (42:19):
That stuck in my mind. I still remember this day,
her eating Brussels sprous. It was weird. So that's where
we met. We went to school the whole time together,
and we knew each other. Yeah, But finally I asked
her out. I called her on the phone and I
said would you And before I finished the sentence, she
(42:40):
said yes. And she was the only woman I ever dated.
She's the only I never dated any other women or
any of the girls in school, so it was the
only one. And truth be known, she kissed me first,
and I won't tell you the story, but she kissed
me first, so I knew I was gonna marry that girl.
We were in the core and I was about to
(43:04):
go to Okinawa and.
Speaker 25 (43:06):
Then when there's there's room, I will come you know,
I will come back and get you and we'll travel out.
Because Sue was very shy, Cinderella's story came back and
then we h got married immediately there.
Speaker 10 (43:23):
And my parents had a dairy farm, so Menzo worked
on the dairy farm, went to college, and I.
Speaker 8 (43:31):
Was at McDonald's. I was a manager for McDonald's.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
It being that time of year, the family decided to
watch a Christmas movie on TV in a living room
that looks straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. In fact,
Rockwell Prince hang on the walls.
Speaker 8 (43:48):
What streaming platform has that?
Speaker 3 (43:50):
Do we know?
Speaker 16 (43:51):
I would just do a roku in search, including up
up right there we've got Prime Wonderful Life. Hey, great
Big Winner, Oh the black.
Speaker 20 (44:13):
Version, last version?
Speaker 16 (44:16):
We want skip good?
Speaker 22 (44:23):
See that?
Speaker 16 (44:23):
Now that's like my bells.
Speaker 26 (44:32):
George Bailey was never born visit Save George Bailey dot
com to join the mission. There you'll find links to
works by this episode's participants. Learn more about how to
celebrate George Bailey Day on Saturday, December ninth, and annually
the second Saturday of December hereafter by hosting your own
Wonderful Life viewing party. Tell your friends to listen to
(44:53):
this show, subscribe, like, comment, and post about it on
social media hashtags save George Bailey. Scribe to our patreon
to hear uncut interviews and bonus content. The podcast also
available on YouTube. iHeartMedia presents a double asterisk iHeartMedia co
production in association with True Stories Created, written and directed
(45:14):
by Joseph kurt Angfer and Reyno Vashlski kurt Angfer, producer
and supervising editor, Rayno Vashlsky, producer and journalist, Elizabeth Marcus editor,
Roy Sillings narrator. George Bailey theme song by Carolyn Sills
Buyer albums soundtrack composed by Zachary Walter by his Albums
and the original soundtrack to this podcast available wherever you
(45:37):
get your music. Mallory Keenoi co producer, writer's assistant, archival
producer and fact checker, John Autry, sound engineer, additional editing,
sound design and mix. Executive producers Dave Cassidy, Kurt Angfer,
Lindsay Hoffman and Bethan Macaluso for iHeartMedia, John Duffy for
Double Asterisk, Ruth Vodka for True Stories, Reyno Voshewsky for
(46:01):
Double Asterisk and True Stories, Elizabeth Hankouch. Associate producer Brandon
Lavoy and Ryan Pennington. Consulting producers Keith Sklar, contract Legal,
Peter Yazi Copyright and Fair Use Legal, Mattie Acres, archival specialist,
ron Kaddition, Benji Michaels, publicists Kaveasanthanam and Marley Weaver. Marketing
(46:24):
and promotions. Art and web design by Aaron Kim. Interns
were Kyra Gray, Emma Ramirez, Eva Stewart, and Tia Wilson.
Podcast license for Philip Van Doren Stearns The Greatest Gift
provided by the Greatest Gift Corporation. Their attorney is Kevin Koloff.
Recorded at David Weber's Airtime Studios in Bloomington, Indiana. This
(46:44):
episode featured in chronological order, Kelly Gilfoyle, Alisia Clark, Gene
van Stein, John Demmer, John Simcoe, Charles Keating Junior, Richard Maugren, Wells,
Menzo case, Casey Galloway, Jen Bernard, Brian Alexander, Katerina, Uleio,
Vanessa Amsbury, Bonia Ivy, Van Susan case, Raquel Martin and
(47:07):
Raquel's young son, The people of Seneca Falls, and the
cast of Wonderful Life, and the brief voices, music and
artistry of the cast of Saturday Night Live, Michael Douglas,
Stana Carvey, and news media professionals used under the still
existing legal doctrine of fair use. The Potters are working
on that one, though additional help provided by Rick Newman.
Seneca Falls. Lodging for crew provided by Twila Keeler. If
(47:30):
you're in Nutley, New Jersey, visit the Nutley Historical Society
and Museum, the Mudhole, Nutley Avenue, where Francis Goodrich grew up,
and the Sledding Hill. If you're in Peterborough, New Hampshire,
see a movie at the Peterborough Community Theater. Catch a
play from the Peterborough Players who first performed Thornton Wilder's
Our Town in nineteen forty, and visit the Lovely Shops restaurants,
(47:51):
breweries and coffee houses, but tip your servers well and
maybe say hi to former State Rep. Ivy Van. If
you're in Mamerineck, New York, visit their local business, Norman
Rockwell's Childhood Home and Fuller House Affordable Housing Initiative. If
you're looking for a home, go to Hulahan Lawrence and
ask for Katerina. And if you're in Seneca Falls, visit
the Wonderful Life Museum, Drink Like a Girl Cafe, Nineteen
(48:12):
Generations Bank, Seneca County Habitat for Humanity, the Gould Hotel,
and I Guess Dunkin Donuts. If you want go to
double Asteriskmedia dot com to hear. Are other limited run
podcasts Who Is Rich Blee After the Uprising with a
bold new season in Saint Louis coming summer twenty twenty
four and Origins Birth of a Pandemic, and subscribe to
(48:34):
True Stories New Weekly Everybody Has a podcast with Ruth
and Ray. If you are feeling like you're on the bridge,
please call the AFSP's suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing
nine to eight eight into your phone, or contact the
crisis text line by texting seven four to one, Dash
seven four to one. Consider donating to our volunteering with
(48:55):
AFSP or your local Habitat for Humanity, and make George
Bailey proud. We're not affiliated with them though Copyright twenty
twenty three double asterisk ink no god brid
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